An Image Widget for WordPress

July 24, 2014

One of the best parts about being someone who uses WordPress on a daily basis both for personal use and in doing work for others is the ability to create solutions to problems that you encounter throughout your day-to-day.

Obviously, some problems are more complex than others and require more elaborate solutions, whereas others are easier problems that still may call for a simpler solution, but a solution nonetheless.

Case in point: In a few recent projects, I’ve needed to integrate an image widget that allows users to easily upload images into sidebars and/or widgetized areas of their blog. The challenge, however, is that there are multiple ways to go about doing this.

Yet Another Image Widget for WordPress?

As I’ve mentioned in prior posts, there are literally hundreds of thousands of themes and plugins that are available in the WordPress economy and I think that that’s a great thing; however, each solution is a little bit different than the others.

Sometimes, plugins include features that you dislike, don’t need, or are overkill, sometimes they haven’t been kept up to standard, and sometimes they don’t provide enough functionality. Of course, this is generally relevant to your own personal needs.

Regardless, there are some absolutely great plugins that are available that do similar things. There are also less than stellar options, as well. Such is the nature of the economy.

Anyway, to that end, that’s when it’s sometimes better to implement your own solution rather than use someone else’s.

On a Tangential Note

With that said, I do feel that given recent posts about developers and implementers that this could be misconstrued as a case of a developer creating something that’s already been done. I’m not saying that doesn’t happen – it certainly does – and I believe that developer should be pragmatic about how they implement projects.

But in this case, this particular project was an implementation that met the specific needs of a few of my own projects. It was meant to fulfill a specific approach that I couldn’t find in similar plugins (this, of course, doesn’t mean they don’t exist – I just didn’t come across one).

The goal was to create a lightweight, easy-to-use plugin that uses as many native WordPress features as possible so not to break the user out of the experience they are used to having when working with media for posts, pages, and other post types.

Additionally, developing the plugin was an exercise striving for simplicity in that I attempted to make it as painless as possible to get started using it.

I believe that the user should be able to:

Download the plugin

Install it and activate it

Drag it to a widgetized area

Click on the ‘Upload Image’ button

Upload and/or select an image

…and be done. And that’s that I set out to do.

Furthermore, the image should scale to fit within the constraints of the sidebar of the theme so not to disrupt the site’s layout.

Here are a few shots of the first version of the plugin in action:

The widget running in the sidebar of the Twentytwelve theme.

Selecting an image from the media uploader.

The widget’s dashboard after selecting an image.

Regarding the Business Model

It feels a little funny to talk about a business model for a plugin that’s as straightforward as this, but it’s a model nonetheless.

As much as I want to contribute to forcing a change in the WordPress economy around pricing and quality of products, I couldn’t fully abandon the option of offering a free plugin.

Not just yet. And all of the following comes from various comments, emails, and pieces of advice offered by others that I respect and whose opinion I value.

I still need to build brand awareness around Pressware and its products. The WordPress Plugin Repository offers high visibility.

Although a variation of the plugin can be released for free, this doesn’t mean that other features of the plugin outside of the source code are available for free.

Thus, for those who need access to support, additional features, and more, then there is the ability to upgrade.

To be honest, it’s all a bit of an experiment to see how it goes, but that doesn’t change the fact that a significant amount of effort has gone into trying to create a well-architected, lightweight, easy-to-use plugin that helps users add images to their sidebar.

Whether or not this particular approach will work is yet to be proven, so I’m eager to see it play out.

In the meantime, I’m also interested in hearing feedback from those of you who have worked on similar plugins, taken a similar (or different!) approach, and who are curious about the technical details that went into building the plugin.

Join the conversation! 4 Comments

“…to create a well-architected, lightweight, easy-to-use plugin…” This helps solidify the point of an essay I wrote the other day about how just because a plugin, or theme, is free, that doesn’t mean it’s necessarily a piece of junk. Authors still have a reputation to maintain.

This helps solidify the point of an essay I wrote the other day about how just because a plugin, or theme, is free, that doesn’t mean it’s necessarily a piece of junk. Authors still have a reputation to maintain.

Exactly – and thanks for recognizing that. Some definitely pay attention to that, but others just want a quick fix to their problem.

The latter case is okay, but it’s not where I want to place myself.

As far as the Medium link is concerned, thanks! Bookmarked and will be reading soon :).

Tom, I’ve really appreciated your candour in sharing the thinking behind your business decisions with Pressware. We’ve been spending a lot of time reconsidering our business model in the past few months, particularly in relation to two new products we are developing (one theme, one plugin). The fact that you decided to release this plugin through .org has stood out to me a lot. You see, I think of you as someone who has a lot of exposure in the WordPress world (and certainly a level of exposure we would be thrilled to have), so the fact that you’ve found it necessary to release through .org for the exposure says a lot about just how much we have to do to build the kind of exposure we need to build a sustainable business.

So thank you. I sincerely appreciate your honesty on this blog and on Pressware’s blog.

Thanks! I know that I’m sharing some things that are either obvious, that may look bad, or that may even be poor decisions, but I don’t mind sharing because – right now, at least – I don’t have much to lose. I have much more to again, in fact.

I can learn from my mistakes and missteps, publicly share them to help others and to hold myself accountable, and also get advice from others who have been-there-done-that in the past :). I just don’t really see it as a loss.

You see, I think of you as someone who has a lot of exposure in the WordPress world (and certainly a level of exposure we would be thrilled to have), so the fact that you’ve found it necessary to release through .org for the exposure says a lot about just how much we have to do to build the kind of exposure we need to build a sustainable business.

I appreciate that! I don’t know how much exposure there is or isn’t for me personally (nor do I care – I enjoy blogging, chatting with others, and building solutions for others), but I do know this: The exposure that comes in the .org repository shouldn’t be understated.

Trying to figure out how to monetize / convert those is an entirely different story, but we’ll see how this plays out in the future.

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